


is this your card?

by basha



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: Atlas-centric, Getting Together, Multi, i don't know anything about magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:07:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23677375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/basha/pseuds/basha
Summary: Danny learns that if he wants to be loved, he's going to have to suffer through the mortifying ordeal of being known.
Relationships: J. Daniel Atlas/Merritt McKinney/Henley Reeves/Jack Wilder
Comments: 10
Kudos: 126





	is this your card?

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this movie last night, read all the fic, and decided I had to contribute! I know nothing about magic so I tried to write around it. 
> 
> Enjoy!

The first time he says it he’s eight years old and he hasn't left his room in days. His first ever mark is his mother, his first stage is the dining room of his childhood home. She smiles indulgently as he pulls the eight of spades from his pocket.

“Is this your card?”

“Yes, honey, it was!” His mother trills. “Wow!”

“He put it up his sleeve,” his older brother says, rolling his eyes. He’s seated at the head of the table where their dad used to sit, feet up on his old chair. 

“Fuck you!” eight-year-old Danny says. His mother gasps and his brother curses back and they both get in trouble. They both get sent to their rooms, which is fine with him. He practices again and again until he’s certain that his brother couldn’t see the trick even if he was looking for it. 

The whole point of magic, for him, is that it’s a secret. 

*

“Is this your card?” Danny asks a lot in high school.

He gets a funny sort of reputation after spending all of his freshman year leaning over to girls (and some very select boys) and asking them if they want to see a magic trick. Most girls wrinkle their nose up at him at first, but they’re always impressed by the time he’s done. People start approaching him in the hallway; he puts on little shows in front of his locker on Fridays. He’s not quite part of the cool crowd but they allow him to entertain them, he puts on the persona he knows works and plays along. 

He asks Emily Hinton to prom with a card trick, and it’s enough to get her to say yes but not enough to get him past second base. 

His senior year he gets cocky. He plans his first heist, a daring attempt to steal back all of the stuff students have had confiscated over the last few years from the cabinet in the teacher’s lounge. He only really does it because he’s had so many decks of cards taken away, and they’re not exactly cheap. He can’t do it alone, so he ropes in a couple of jocky guys who are always up for rule-breaking and Emily, in a misguided attempt to impress her. He pulls off the heist during the talent show, snapping his fingers and “magically” making everyone’s belongings reappear in their bookbags. It’s a fucking awesome trick, but Emily cracks under the slightest bit of pressure and tells the principle how they did it. 

He gets barred from walking the stage at graduation, but everyone treats him like a superhero, patting his back and calling him a genius in the hallway. He shrugs them all off. He doesn’t need them to like him, he only needs to know something they don’t.

Emily comes over to his house that night and tries to apologize but he won’t let her. He pushes her away and calls her names and she’s crying when she leaves. They never speak again, but he doesn’t care. She might have spilled one of his secrets to the whole school, but at least he can take the fact that he was in love with her to his grave. 

He tells his mom it’s just a gap year but they both know it isn’t. He gets a cheap place in the city with four other guys and spends his days doing tricks on street corners. Someone in the real scene finds him one day and takes him under their wing, lets him do a few tricks in some clubs. He gets invited back, gains a following of his own, gets a real apartment, recruits his first assistant. 

He starts actually picking up girls with the trick he first used to ask Emily to prom.

“Is this your card?” He’ll ask, flipping it so they could clearly see the written words:  _ come home with me? _

Most girls are just there for the night, but there are a couple of girls (and one guy) who decide they want to stick around. He always likes it until he doesn’t; there’s always a moment where they look into his eyes and beg him to open up and he has to kick them out. 

“Come on, Danny, I’ve told you all about my daddy issues,” Coraline pouts. “Why don’t you ever tell me anything about yourself?” Danny smiles, the stage smile that’s become the real one.

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” he says. He leans in for a kiss but she pulls back.

“Daniel,” she snaps. “If you ever want to really connect with a person, you’re going to have to let down your walls at least a little bit.” 

“I’m not looking for a connection,” he says. “Just a good lay.” She leaves and he deserves it and he resolves to be meaner in the future so no one ever gets the wrong idea again. 

*

The best/worst thing about Henley is that she always understands how the trick works before he explains it to her; all he has to do is do it in front of her once and she can copy him exactly. She’s better than him at certain things too, and this annoys him, though not as much as it annoys him that he likes her company so much.

He tries to pretend that he doesn’t care about her and she sees right through that, too, presses him against the back wall of a theatre after a show one night and takes his breath away. She pulls back, and Danny’s sure he’s got some of her red lipstick smeared on his face. He wipes at his mouth with his sleeve. Henley watches impassively.

“You’re about to freak out because you have commitment issues, right?”

“Our next gig is on Tuesday,” he reminds her, keeping his voice as steady as possible. He doesn’t run away from her, not exactly. But he does walk very quickly. 

Danny starts working harder and harder. He gains more and more critical acclaim but it’s not really for them, the audience, it’s for Henley. He wants to be able to surprise her, just once. He uses her in the act less and less so that his part of the act can become bigger and bigger, more and more impressive. 

“I like how you did the thing with the lights,” she tells him after the show one day, lounging comfortably in the green room in a sparkly, skimpy outfit. “Though you ought to twist your wrist a little more so stage right can’t see the remote.” 

“Henley…” he says. He wants to say  _ how do you always know?  _ Wants to say  _ why are you always watching so closely?  _ Wants to say  _ how come when it’s you I don’t mind so much; how come when it’s you I don’t feel the need to keep secrets?  _ Instead, because it fits into their bit, the back and forth he thought they were both in on, he says “You almost fucked up the box act, you have to lose a few pounds or something so you can get through the trapdoor more smoothly.”

She doesn’t leave right after that but she also doesn’t stick around for too much longer. 

His next string of assistants marvel at his tricks and need him to walk them through their parts step by step and he hates that about them so much that he goes solo. 

*

He had expected there to be others with cards but he didn’t expect one of them to be Henley; he also hadn’t expected the next step to be a big show in Vegas a year away. Still, the instructions are meticulous and brilliant and inspiring and he’s not backing down now just because he has to work together with some other people for a bit. They move into an apartment together, just as the instructions say, and spend the first month or so making sense of the plan and getting drunk together. 

They call their act the Four Horsemen, per the instructions, though it sparks an argument amongst the group. 

“I’m death, obviously,” Jack says, making his tarot card disappear and appear again. “And Atlas is probably war.” 

“Merritt’s war,” Henley corrects. “He makes a living by causing conflict.” Merritt smiles lazily. 

“Guilty as charged,” Merritt drawls. He says everything in this ridiculous Southern accent that Danny’s convinced is put on, part of his persona. Merrit gets on his nerves; he doesn’t like the mentalism bullshit and he doesn’t like the way the guy looks at Henley (or how she looks back).

“Danny is pestilence,” Henley adds. “Or at least he’s certainly a pest.” 

Jack says “Ohhh!” likes she’s said something really clever. He might hero-worship Danny but he’s got a crush on Henley too, and his heart (or dick) apparently wins over his head. 

“That makes you famine,” Danny retorts. “Though I’m not sure that’s apt. It’s not like you’re missing a lot of meals, if you know what I mean.” 

“You’re such a dick, Danny,” Henley says affectionately, not rising to the bait the way he wanted her to at all. “I’m proud to be famine. I always leave people wanting more.” Jack and Merritt laugh; Danny rolls his eyes. 

“Now, Jack,” Merrit says, amusement sparkling in his eyes. Danny braces himself. “You’re young, so you might not have caught on, and I want you to know that Danny-boy here is only mean to our dear Henley because he’s afraid of how much he cares about her. Don’t worry, he’s not actually a cold-hearted piece of shit.”

“I thought I told you not to use that mentalism shit on me,” Danny snaps. 

“So you admit it’s true?” Merrit shoots back, smiling the satisfied smile of a skilled magician finishing a long con. Danny gets up.

“I’m going to bed,” he says, then locks his bedroom dorm behind him. 

*

The first time the Four Horsemen take the stage together, in Vegas, and rob a bank, Danny almost has a panic attack at the end of the act. He doesn’t get them a lot, not anymore, and there’s nothing in particular that sets him off. Nothing in the show went wrong. In fact, everything was perfect. Too perfect. He and Henley and Merritt and Jack fit together like puzzle pieces, like they had been performing together for their whole lives.

Danny starts a sentence and Merritt finishes it. He almost flubs a trick and Jack swoops in with a misdirect. He waves the stupid plastic wand and Henley reappears. The audience loses their minds. 

It’s the best performance he’s ever done. 

When the show ends and it’s time for bows all he has to do is hold out his hands and there’s Jack on one side and Henley on the other, and he can feel himself melding with all of them, becoming one, something bigger and better than each of them alone. He wrenches away as soon as possible and runs offstage and is almost grateful they get arrested, not just because he gets to be snooty to the Rhodes guy but also because they lock him up alone. 

That night when they are released and go back home, Danny feels absolutely drained. Henley disappears to take a shower and Merritt goes out to bring them back dinner and alcohol so Danny and Jack collapse on the couch together. 

“Why are you so tired?” Danny says. “You got to sleep in the interrogation room.” He means it as a joke but it comes out too harsh. Jack either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. He stretches out, using Danny’s thigh as a pillow. 

“Not all of us got a solid eight hours of sleep last night and drank a venti vanilla bean latte with soy milk before the show,” Jack bites back jokingly, and Danny knows this is the part when he should laugh but he can’t. Because Jack wasn’t even there when he ordered the coffee and Danny was in his room all night last night and how does Jack even know those things? He stands up abruptly and Jack’s head hits the couch below him. “Ouch,” Jack pouts. 

Merritt comes back with Chinese food and vodka and he lets himself relax, sitting as far away from Jack as possible.

“I got you beef with broccoli with extra broccoli,” Merritt says, sliding Danny a container. “Cause I know it’s your favorite and cause you need to eat more vegetables. You have a worse diet than Jack and he’s always eating those sour patch thingies.” 

“If you know what Danny likes, why’d you only get vodka?” Henley teases. “You know he can’t hold his hard liquor.” 

Danny puts the container down. 

“How do you all know what I like to eat and drink?” He’s aware he sounds paranoid but he can’t help it. Henley rolls her eyes. 

“Cause we know you, dummy.” Danny stands up.

“I’m going to bed.”

*

Things get a little awkward after that but they don’t really have a lot of time for dealing with Danny’s feelings because what’s going to go down in New Orleans is epic. 

Still, Danny finds himself both chafing under their familiarity and craving it. 

He hates and loves that Merrit always knows just what to say, especially to Henley, to push his buttons. He hates and loves that Henley never exactly tells him he’s forgiven but shows it all the same. He hates and loves that the night he’s freaking out about an especially complicated part in the upcoming show Jack comes into his room uninvited with a deck of cards. 

“Fuck off Wilder,” he groans, thinking about bubbles and ropes and Fluffy the bunny. 

“Take a break,” Jack wheedles. “Please. For me. Your biggest fan.” Danny rolls his eyes but sits up on his bed. 

“What do you want?”

“Well, I used to come to your shows, right? And you used to do this trick a lot that I was obsessed with. I could usually figure out the others after a couple of shows, but I never understood how you did it.”

“Which trick?” 

“The one you always did with whatever lady or gentleman you decided you were going to go home with that night,” Jack replies, so surely that Danny doesn’t bother feigning ignorance.

“I’m not gonna tell you how I did it,” he says instead. 

“Aw, c’mon Danny, give me more credit than that. I just wanna figure it out.” Jack sits down on the bed, cross-legged, facing Danny. He holds out the deck and Danny takes it, shuffles twice, and fans out the cards. 

“Okay, Wilder. Pick a card.” He does the trick for Jack three times, and Jack watches with the same adorable amazement every time. At some point Henley and Merrit appear in the doorway, looking amused. 

“Don’t you dare tell me how it works,” Jack says to them. “I’m trying to figure it out myself.” Merrit chuckles and Henley coos. Danny does the complicated twisty part with the cards, then releases. The cards fall into a heart on the bed next to them, with a jack of hearts in the middle.

“Is this your card?” 

“Fuck!” Jack shouts, eyes going wide. “Did you put it in your pants?” Danny laughs, Merrit and Henley join in. Danny reaches across the bed and ruffles Jack’s hair. 

“There you go, kid. Happy now?”

“Thrilled,” Jack says, grinning. “My turn to try. Merrit?” Merrit and Henley walk all the way inside the room. Henley sits behind Danny, draping herself over his shoulder to watch. Merrit stands in front of Jack, who shuffles the deck and then offers Merrit the fan of cards. He nails the trick on the first try and Danny squints at him. Henley snickers in his ear and something clicks into place.

“You knew this whole time,” he accuses. 

“Maybe,” Jack replies. “But maybe I just wanted to be the one to pick the card this time. Maybe I wanted to get you out of your head for a minute. Maybe both.” He shuffles again, looking smug, and Danny wants to run. He settles for snatching the deck back and then making it disappear with a flick of his wrist. 

“Don’t be pissy,” Merrit says. “Kid’s just trying to take care of you.” Then he leans down and smacks a kiss on Danny’s forehead. “Now, come on, it’s dinner time and you haven’t eaten all day.” 

They all follow Merrit out to the dining room, and Danny hangs back for a moment to grab at Jack’s sleeve. 

“If I’d ever seen you at one of my shows, I would’ve picked you to do the trick with,” he says awkwardly. Jack seems to get what he means though, because he pulls him into a half hug and brags loudly to Heney about how much Danny loves him. 

*

Merritt’s the one who keeps bringing up the idea of “after.” Jack seems to think it’s bad luck. He throws a lot of salt over his shoulder and knocks on a lot of wood and mumbles to himself about jail a lot. 

“Relax,” Henley says, sounding absolutely unrelaxed herself. “At least if you three go to jail you’ll be together. I’d be all by myself.” Danny is sitting on the floor, petting Fluffy and trying to ignore them. It’s the night before their final performance. His stomach hurts. 

“Well when we stage our breakout, we’ll make sure to come get you before we cross the border over to Mexico,” Merritt retorts. “See, but I’m choosing to think positive. I think once we join the Eye they’ll take us to some sort of private island where we can relax for a while.”

“That does sound nice,” Henley agrees. “Though I think it would be fun to do more shows together. Come up with our own closer for a change. We’d have to get new identities, I suppose...”

“Or we could do something completely unexpected,” Jack pipes up. “Like, what if we became farmers or something?” Henley giggles.

“Already been there,” Merritt says. “Not as fun as it sounds. What do you think we should do, Danny, assuming the Eye doesn’t have another 12 step program for us?” Danny squeezes Fluffy too hard and she hops out of his lap.

“ _ I  _ was thinking I’d join recruitment,” he admits. “I think I’d be well suited to put together instructions for the next set of suckers that gets to join up.”

“Sure you would,” Merritt says. “I bet the four of us could cook up a bomb-ass plan.”

“Maybe I want to do it alone,” Danny snaps. “Just ‘cause we’re partners now doesn’t mean we have to stick together forever and make each other friendship bracelets and get matching tattoos.”

“I suppose we don’t have to,” Merrit agrees casually. “But come on, Atlas. You’d actually like that, wouldn’t you?” The worst part about it is he’s right. 

“I’m--”

“--going to bed,” the other three finish for him in perfect unison. 

*

The final act goes so well Danny kind of can’t believe it, and it’s been such an amazing adventure he’s not even that mad when Agent Rhodes turns out to be behind it all. He is, however, taken aback when Rhodes tells them that “The Eye” is really him and a couple of older magicians, and that at this point it’s pretty much whatever they want it to be. 

“You could put it all behind you,” he says. “Well, as much as possible for three criminals and a dead man. Or, if you want, we can do another heist together.” They all exchange looks, but neither of them can read anything definitive from the others. 

“We’ll need some time to think about it,” Merritt says, speaking for them all. 

“Sure,” Rhodes agrees easily. “I’ll be in touch. Oh, hey, I have something for you.” He pulls a hotel room key out of his pocket. “Obviously you can’t go back to your apartment. Stay there for a couple days, I’ll keep everybody off your trail.”

“Thank you,” Henley says. “Come on boys, I’m tired.” Rhodes raises a single eyebrow as they all obediently move to leave, which Danny decides to pretend he didn’t see. 

Navigating back into civilization gets them all worried, but no one’s looking for them, especially not in the hotel. They take the elevator up to the top floor and Henley opens the door for all of them. The room is the fanciest thing Danny’s ever seen, but there’s a problem: there is only one bed. A huge bed, sure, bigger than king size, but still. 

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” Danny offers. He’s working on the whole being a good person thing. Besides, Merritt’s old and Henley sleeps poorly in new places and Jack has nightmares if no one’s in bed with him, so they can all take the bed. 

“For Christ’s sake,” Henley snaps. 

“What?” Danny asks. His mind has already been blown today and he genuinely does not understand what he’s done wrong. 

“Come on, Atlas,” Merritt groans. “I know you’re emotionally stunted, but you’re not an idiot.”

“Seriously, what did I do?” Danny hears the note of panic slipping into his voice. “I can sleep on the floor if someone else wants the couch.”

“This is stupid,” Jack pipes up. “We gotta do this in a way Danny’ll understand.”

“The fucking card trick?” Merritt asks, then shrugs. “Yeah, okay.”

“What’s happening?” Danny whines. Henley walks over and takes his hand, pulling him over to the bed. She pushes him until he’s sitting down on the edge of it. Then she pulls a deck of cards out of her pocket.

“J. Daniel Atlas, pick a card,” she instructs.

“I don’t--”

“Pick a fucking card, Danny,” Jack snaps. Danny looks up at him, startled. He picks a fucking card. It’s the four of hearts. 

“Got it,” he says. 

“Put it back in the deck,” Henley instructs. He complies. 

“Now cut it,” Merritt says. “And pick a stack.”

“And with a little abracadabra,” Jack continues, grabbing the stack from Danny and twisting his wrist. Danny knows this trick. If Jack does it right (which he knows he will), the card he’ll flip up will be the four of hearts but this time with some kind of writing on it. It’s the same trick he used to ask Emily to prom and to get girls to come home with him back in his solo act days. He wonders why they’re taking this particular moment to play a dumb, magic-themed practical joke on him. “Tada!” Jack flips the top card over, and lo and behold: the four of hearts. “Is this your card?”

He has to squint a bit to read what’s scrawled on the cards in Henley’s truly abominable handwriting:  _ come to bed with us, idiot. _

“Huh?” Danny looks up from the card and there they are: Jack, Henley, and Merritt; death, famine, and war; the only three people in the world who know all the secrets of his magic and most of the secrets of his heart. “I’m already in bed. Technically.” Henley rolls her eyes. 

“Just say yes, Danny.”

“Yes,” he whispers. It’s the scariest thing he’s ever said in his life. Henley, Jack, and Merritt all smile. Then they crash onto the bed, and the four melt into one. 

*

A year later, Danny is awakened by the sound of a deck of cards being shuffled. He rolls over to see Merritt, sitting up against the headboard, focusing on the deck of cards in his hands with intense concentration. 

“Mer,” he groans, blinking blearily. Merritt startles a little. “‘s early.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Merritt whispers, sounding genuinely contrite. “You can go back to sleep if you want, handsome.”

“Nah, I’m up now.” Danny sits up too, kisses Merritt good morning, and, while he’s distracted, steals the deck of cards.

“Hey!” Merritt protests. “I’m tryin’ to learn some tricks so I can keep up with y’all.” Danny makes a face. Merritt is always complaining about being left out of the cool kids club because card tricks aren’t his forte. 

“Wanna see the first trick I ever learned?” He asks. 

“Yes,” a new voice croaks. Danny looks over to see Jack, who’s blinking at them like a cat with Henley’s head resting on his chest.

“You heard the kid,” Merritt says. Danny shuffles the cards. “Man, I can just picture little baby you--”

“Pick a card,” Danny deadpans. Merritt does. Danny performs the trick quickly and efficiently and pulls Merritt’s card out with a flourish. 

“Is this your card?”

“Sure is, handsome.”

“He put it up his sleeve,” Henley mumbles. She’s probably been awake this whole time.

“Fuck you,” Danny says, but he’s smiling, and leaning down to kiss her. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at <https://sunshine394.tumblr.com/>!


End file.
